On the inaugural episode of <i>More Perfect</i>, we explore three little words embedded in the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and unusual.” America has long wrestled with this concept in the context of our strongest punishment, the death penalty. A majority of “we the people” (61 percent, …

Someone was trying to kill him. William C. Morva was certain of it.<p>He couldn’t breathe and he was withering away, he told his mother in a jailhouse call.<p>“Somebody wants me to die and I don’t know who it is,” he said. “They know my health is dwindling, okay?”<p>He sounded paranoid. His voice grew more …